For the metropolitan cities of Iran, it seems that the winter season has overtones other than snowy, chilly moments. Particularly, for the capital city of Tehran, it is often associated with murkiest, oxygen-starved weather interludes.

One reason for the wintry worsening of Tehran’s air quality has been linked to the meteorological condition of temperature inversion. According to Britanniaca.com, “temperature inversion is a reversal of the normal behavior of temperature in the troposphere (the region of the atmosphere nearest the Earth’s surface), in which a layer of cool air at the surface is overlain by a layer of warmer air.”
An inversion acts like a lid, causing several weather-related effects. One is the trapping of pollutants below the inversion, allowing them to build up. If the sky is very hazy or sunsets are very red, an inversion is likely to happen.
But, air pollution is too convoluted, multifaceted a phenomenon to pin down precisely, defying simplistic attribution to a single underlying cause or a seasonal influence. The claim is evidenced by the fact that even in springs when everything in the garden is rosy, air quality indexes of the capital Tehran are not so meaningfully different.
Air pollution, for instance, is seen by experts to result from stationary and mobile sources such as factories, automobiles, motorcycles, etc, not to say fuel quality, urban infrastructures, and cultural elements. Yet, any debate over the issue is incomplete if management schemes and policies, as one element of overriding weight, are not considered.
Take, for instance, the recent car purchase loan plan the administration pushed through to give the zing back to the automotive industry of the country, already losing ground to a campaign which discouraged purchasing new cars. The campaigners reasoned that domestically manufactured automobiles do not meet standards and so, customers are paying too much for the lemons.
But, to the campaigners’ consternation and on the government’s instruction, a whopping 25 trillion rials (about $739 million) was given to people in the forms of 250 million rials ($7120 at market exchange rate) car purchase loans, which helped domestic automakers of SAIPA and Iran Khodro to sell out a record number of 110,000 vehicles in a week!
The government’s justification was that many families rely on the automotive industry of the country, being inattentive to which will cause a negative ripple effect on other industries and parts of the society. Moreover, it was hoped that the scheme will push the industry out of recession.
In retrospect, it seems neither of the goals has been achieved. On the one hand the whim for Pride and Peugeot has petered out and on the other, nobody knows for sure if the two automakers have received more orders from customers. Unlike the uncertainties, one thing is certain: more 110,000 cars are now or will be on the streets on the ensuing days and hence, more pollution in the air!
Now, imagine what could have happened if the government had implemented an alternative plan, allocating the same amount of budget to motorcycle manufactures active in the country so as to encourage them to replace their assembly lines with modern ones suitable for producing electric motorcycles.
The positive influence of the alternative decision, if it would have been made, had been threefold. Initially, a transition from gasoline-fueled motorcycles to electric ones would mean less air pollution in big cities in general and in Tehran in particular as much as one fourth.
The remarks of Heshmatollah Bastami, spokesman of Air Quality Control Company (AQCC) of the Municipality of Tehran, bear the claim out. According to the official, one fourth of Tehran’s air pollution is accounted for by motorcycles, a stance which is confirmed by Vahid Hosseini, the AQCC head. Now, it shall be clear that with the implementation of the alternative plan, over a short period of time, one important source of air pollution could be eliminated.
Moreover, it would contribute to the transfer of technology to the country, a major theme running through almost all negotiations held with foreign investors and trade delegations visiting the country in the wake of the nuclear pact clinched between Iran and the 5+1 group of countries on July 14 in Vienna. Electric motorcycles are now available in the market however, citizens must pay an arm and a leg to buy one. So, setting up factories with this technology will mean cheaper electric motorcycles.
Last but not least, it would create job opportunities for the educated, skilled workforce of the country. In fact, for domestic motorcycle manufacturers, the plan would contribute to a safe revolutionary transition with no concern not only over downsizing their workforce, but over losing their customers.
The article attempted to look at the issue of air pollution from a different perspective, that is, from a management slant. This is of consequence as numerous factors have been found to influence air quality of metropolises, a proper consideration of which as a whole will demand strong management.
However, what we have seen in the case of Tehran’s air pollution is better characterized by mismanagement than management, manifesting itself in the form of temporary solutions to the crisis such as shutting down schools. While decision-makers should bear in mind that two-day school closures would mean it takes our next generation two days more to catch up with their competitors, they are advised not act myopically!
The Economic Desk of the Tehran Times intends to propose a plan for further consideration by top decision makers of the country to tackle the issue of air pollution in Tehran and other big cities of the country as a development to the present article.